It seems to me that the soul, when alone with itself and speaking to itself, uses only a small number of words,… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
A limited vocabulary, but one with which you can make numerous combinations, is better than thirty thousand words that only hamper the… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
...in song the words tend to lose their significance, do often lose it, while at the other extreme, in current prose it… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
A real writer can be recognized by the fact he doesn't find words. Therefore he must search for them and while doing… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
Poetry is simply literature reduced to the essence of its active principle. It is purged of idols of every kind, of realistic… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
You have certainly observed the curious fact that a given word which is perfectly clear when you hear it or use it… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
The commerce of minds was necessarily the first commerce in the world, ... since before bartering things one must barter signs, and… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“Poetry is a separate language, or more specifically, a language within a language.” — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished a word that for them has no sense but abandoned; and… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“O Socrates, the universe cannot for one instant endure to be only what it is. It is strange to think that that which is… — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
It seems to me that the soul, when alone with itself and speaking to itself, uses only a small number of words, none of… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“I am now going to make an admission. I confess, I agree, that all these good people who protested, who laughed, who did not… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“Degas is one of the very few painters who have given the floor its true importance.” — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
The most ridiculous were those who, on their own authority, made themselves the judges and justices of the tribe. They seemed never to suspect… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
Thought must be hidden in the verse like nutritional virtue in a fruit. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
